Protip: The company that runs the game always has total control over their game's economy. The only reason someone would be silly enough to call an MMO economy a 'living thing' is because most MMO publishers don't like to roll back huge economic imbalances for fear of pissing off the legit players - NOT because they can't control it. They choose not to discomfort legit players and instead try to fix the exploits for easy currency and ban those exploiting it or running full on gold-farms.

 

Sounds like EA/Bioware is off to a great start controlling SWTOR's blossoming economy by chasing off those that would damage it from the start.

Exactly, why are we still discussing this?

/Thread

This is the biggest NONSENSE I have ever heard!! I would be raging right now would something like this happen to me.

Low LVL toons were going to Illum to open item boxes and get creds? I say: wow, how smart, wish I thought of that earlier.

They say it is an exploit???

An exploit is when you work around the "laws" of the game. Say, you find a way to dupe items, open the same credit box twice, etc.

HOW ON EARTH is using the game as intended an exploit?

I`m not that kind of a player. I`m a pretty regular dude, I go online, do a couple of quests, try to farm flashpoints for loot or social/LS points, fly a space mission or two and quit. BUT.

What if I want loads of credits? Because that is what I enjoy in an MMO? What if I found a way to get those credits, and am opening boxes on Illum, all day if I feel like it? So? Am I riuning the game economy? Am I exploiting the game?

Isnt the game linear enough, are you going to tell us how to play as well?

TBH, if actions like these ruin the economy, than there is a big flaw in the system somewhere. Suspending or banning accounts for something like this is harsh/user unfriendly to say the least. I`m not sure who breaks the terms and conditions, those players or BW. its just that BW has power, players dont.

I sure hope they were AT LEAST warned before they were suspended/banned.

DEAR BIOWARE,

Looked around and did not find a list of actions that are considered normal gameplay, nor did I find a list of actions that are considered otherwise. Please provide those, or tell me where to find them.

It may cause a red flag and BioWare can look at your account. If it is a character on the same account and all you are doing is just giving it to that character for crafting/gathering, that should not be an issue.

 

BioWare can track who does what and with their metrics, can see any "unusual" activity.

thank you for taking the time to answer that very important question.

So if your skill in slicing brings you to Ilum but your lvl isn't 40+ you get suspended ? Seems very unfair.

 

if this is not the case please correct me.

That's not the point. They were solely there to EXPLOIT the economy and make bank.

Any normal gamer isn't going to just mosey on into Illum when they hit 400 Slicing; seriously, they aren't.

I applaud Biowares posting. All of it makes perfect sense to the logical and mindful person. I also expected that everyone who has issues with authority would be ranting and complaining in this thread as a result. I was right.

Not enough responses saying thanks, so I'm tossing in my thanks to bioware for making the effort.

Thank you.

I applaud Biowares posting. All of it makes perfect sense to the logical and mindful person. I also expected that everyone who has issues with authority would be ranting and complaining in this thread as a result. I was right.

 

Not enough responses saying thanks, so I'm tossing in my thanks to bioware for making the effort.

 

Thank you.

Yay, another Thank you, we are few and far between!

Protip: The company that runs the game always has total control over their game's economy. The only reason someone would be silly enough to call an MMO economy a 'living thing' is because most MMO publishers don't like to roll back huge economic imbalances for fear of pissing off the legit players - NOT because they can't control it. They choose not to discomfort legit players and instead try to fix the exploits for easy currency and ban those exploiting it or running full on gold-farms.

 

Sounds like EA/Bioware is off to a great start controlling SWTOR's blossoming economy by chasing off those that would damage it from the start.

There is no economy at all right now. Also, you might want to read up on numerous academic studies of online gaming economies and how they work. It might help you understand the intricacies.

I applaud Biowares posting. All of it makes perfect sense to the logical and mindful person. I also expected that everyone who has issues with authority would be ranting and complaining in this thread as a result. I was right.

 

Not enough responses saying thanks, so I'm tossing in my thanks to bioware for making the effort.

 

Thank you.

Despite popular belief, you don't get brownie points for sucking up on the forums.

That's not the point. They were solely there to EXPLOIT the economy and make bank.

 

Any normal gamer isn't going to just mosey on into Illum when they hit 400 Slicing; seriously, they aren't.

If you don't want them to be there, lock them out.

The problem isn't players just farming creds, it's the influx of MMO currency brokers that roll over anything and everyone and exploit every thing available to get in-game currency to turn over for real world cash. They're the bane of every modern MMO that has subscriber populations high enough to make it appealing to these low-lifes.

 

Unfortunately, there's scant little to done about the powerleveling services and advanced toon resellers but these types don't bother me half as much as getting run over trying to harvest something by some bot or some idiot in China working a shift to rip off our resources to sell right back to us.

 

I for one, applaud the swift and heavy hand applied to gold farmers. Make this an unfriendly environment for them from the start and we'll all be much happier.

Totally agree. Gold farming with a goal of selling for real money must be fought every step of the way. I don't have an issue with that. I have an issue with trying to control player activities that are not exploits by any reasonable definition in most every other MMO. Now, I may be mistaken if what was punished was not just farming nonstop for that person's own use. If that was what was punished that is just wrong and will have a chilling effect on veteran MMO players. I don't, nor do a lot of other players, want, what one person stated earlier, a police state.

Our Terms of Service team recently took action against some accounts playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we wanted to give you some insight into what happened and why.

 

First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.

 

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

 

None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.

 

It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.

 

While we will not discuss the details of any individual action, whenever we take action against an account we believe they have clearly broken our Terms of Service. Any action taken against an account can be appealed and in some cases actions have been rescinded.

 

While we understand people's concern about actions taken against accounts, please remember the Terms of Service team exists to help ensure a balanced and fair game experience for all. When you see reports of actions taken against someone's account, remember they are choosing to tell their version of the story - and there are two sides to every story.

 

In summary, our Terms of Service team took action against a number of accounts that were 'credit farming' to remove them permanently from the game. They also warned and temporarily suspended - but did not ban - a smaller number of accounts for activities on Ilum that were decided to be game exploits.

 

Some adjustments will be made to Ilum in the near future to discourage future exploits. However, the planet is still open to anyone who wishes to travel there.

 

The goal of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is to maintain a service for our customers that is fun to play and equitable for everyone. Critical to this goal is making sure that gameplay is fair and reasonable and we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences.

 

Thanks for reading, and we hope this gave you some insights.

glad to see you are taking a hard stance on this and are protecting the players from these gold farmers

Been reading most of this forum and a couple of quick things

GJ on the Credit Farming. Credit Farming, btw, is considered to be farming up credits to sell for RL monitary value. This is against the TOS, and yes, I agree they should, and did, get the axe.

On the Iilum Exploit.

We have NO IDEA what actually happened, so saying that the Devs were right or wrong should not be a question at this point.

From the OP we can differ that the player(s) in question WERE WARNED TO STOP WHAT THEY WERE DOING. They did not stop, so they got banned. Personally I do not see anything wrong with this.

If one of my kids misbehaves, I.E. throwing the ball in the house. I will tell my child to stop. If they do not stop, there will be a punishment. Same principle here.

You pay a subscription to play a game BY BIOWARES RULES not yours. Its not your RIGHT to be able to do whatever the hell you want in BIOWARES game that THEY created. You are paying for the PRIVILEDGE to play what they created.

If you do not like it you do have the RIGHT to go create your own game. GL on that...

 

This is why I did not agree with Blizzard when they banned some of the top guilds in the world for "exploiting" a mechanic during the Lich King fight.

Just wanted to point out that most of these guild knew they were in the wrong. And none of them made a stink about the ban.

My final thought is that Bioware did allot of good here. Discouraging people from exploiting is wonderful. I hate doing a bunch of grinding and pushing just to find out that some jerk payed for credits, or exploited something to get the same result in a few minutes.

Been reading most of this forum and a couple of quick things

 

GJ on the Credit Farming. Credit Farming, btw, is considered to be farming up credits to sell for RL monitary value. This is against the TOS, and yes, I agree they should, and did, get the axe.

 

On the Iilum Exploit.

We have NO IDEA what actually happened, so saying that the Devs were right or wrong should not be a question at this point.

From the OP we can differ that the player(s) in question WERE WARNED TO STOP WHAT THEY WERE DOING. They did not stop, so they got banned. Personally I do not see anything wrong with this.

If one of my kids misbehaves, I.E. throwing the ball in the house. I will tell my child to stop. If they do not stop, there will be a punishment. Same principle here.

You pay a subscription to play a game BY BIOWARES RULES not yours. Its not your RIGHT to be able to do whatever the hell you want in BIOWARES game that THEY created. You are paying for the PRIVILEDGE to play what they created.

 

If you do not like it you do have the RIGHT to go create your own game. GL on that...

 

 

Just wanted to point out that most of these guild knew they were in the wrong. And none of them made a stink about the ban.

 

My final thought is that Bioware did allot of good here. Discouraging people from exploiting is wonderful. I hate doing a bunch of grinding and pushing just to find out that some jerk payed for credits, or exploited something to get the same result in a few minutes.

Good response. Sums up mine, and most likely, a lot of others reading this. But, to your signature, I will never die, PIE OR NO PIE!

LOL yea, it rymes, and I like pie....so it is what it is.

And thank you, I personally expected to be trolled almost immediately...lol

LOL yea, it rymes, and I like pie....so it is what it is.

 

And thank you, I personally expected to be trolled almost immediately...lol

Truph is easy to troll. Believe me!

If you don't want them to be there, lock them out.

There isn't an issue with low level players going to Ilum and getting chests, if they can. BW doesn't want to say players can't do that. They just don't want people camping/exploiting it.

From the OP we can differ that the player(s) in question WERE WARNED TO STOP WHAT THEY WERE DOING. They did not stop, so they got banned. Personally I do not see anything wrong with this.

Really? It can be because English isnt my first language, but where do you read that?

I can see "players were warned or temporarily suspended" - so some were warned, while others were banned. I just dont see "they were warned and then banned".

I love it.

Dev says "Players have been warned for exploiting chests on Ilum with low level toons."

Angry nerds hear/read "Players have been banned for going to Ilum at low level and looting chests."

See what I did there? I even made the important bits bold, so the point would maybe come across a bit clearer. I also love how the majority of the people up in arms about this somehow know exactly what said exploit is, even though it hasn't been mentioned once and in fact has been repeatedly said that they won't go into details. Seriously, unless you were one of the people who got your wrists slapped and actually have some light to shed on what the exploit at hand may or may not be, then you're just spreading baseless gossip that doesn't help anyone.

I'm not even going to try and understand how people possibly took away from the original statement that they somehow couldn't mail credits to their own toons or repeatedly gather resource nodes in an area, etc... lol

I get that there are probably some people new to the MMO scene playing this game and I specifically exlude them from my following comment, but c'mon... just about everyone knows the difference between amassing credits for personal wealth and actual gold farming - there's no need to be a d-bag and play around with semantics because your butt-hurt over what is very likely a long list of things you're very certain BioWare has done wrong so far.

I love it.

 

Dev says "Players have been warned for exploiting chests on Ilum with low level toons."

 

Angry nerds hear/read "Players have been banned for going to Ilum at low level and looting chests."

 

See what I did there? I even made the important bits bold, so the point would maybe come across a bit clearer. I also love how the majority of the people up in arms about this somehow know exactly what said exploit is, even though it hasn't been mentioned once and in fact has been repeatedly said that they won't go into details. Seriously, unless you were one of the people who got your wrists slapped and actually have some light to shed on what the exploit at hand may or may not be, then you're just spreading baseless gossip that doesn't help anyone.

 

I'm not even going to try and understand how people possibly took away from the original statement that they somehow couldn't mail credits to their own toons or repeatedly gather resource nodes in an area, etc... lol

 

I get that there are probably some people new to the MMO scene playing this game and I specifically exlude them from my following comment, but c'mon... just about everyone knows the difference between amassing credits for personal wealth and actual gold farming - there's no need to be a d-bag and play around with semantics because your butt-hurt over what is very likely a long list of things you're very certain BioWare has done wrong so far.

And your post is no better than what you just railed against.

When I read:

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

I am left wondering if someone can be suspended for farming chests hours upon hour even if they are NOT doing so for the purpose of selling the credits. Clarity from CMs would help here. But until then I am concerned that folks can be suspended for simply farming for their own benefit.

I'd like to draw your attention to this part of the statement again:

 

 

The actions taken by these accounts - and again, this is a relatively low number - were not 'normal gameplay'. Everything you have listed above is what we'd consider 'normal gameplay'.

 

While we will not being going into further details of the accounts that were actioned against, suffice to say they were not conducting any activities similar to what you described.

I, for one, am VERY glad to see you taking action to not only curb "gold farming", but to curb excessive farming in general.

Kudos.

So if players what to spend all day farming credits for their own use they can be warned or banned? That doesn't seem right and runs contrary to maintaining an open economy.

The post specifically says:

"These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players."

So not only were these players obtaining a large amount of credits, they were apparently sending them to other players and not just hoarding them.

The post specifically says:

 

"These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players."

 

So not only were these players obtaining a large amount of credits, they were apparently sending them to other players and not just hoarding them.

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

This is the part that concerns me. No where in there does it state they were selling them. Just that they were farming them 'repeatedly'.